Apple users may get $20 each for up to five Siri-enabled devices.

    • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      If fines are not proportional to wealth, and sufficiently large enough to prevent reoffending, they are only a penalty for the poor.

      This is an insignificant overhead to one of the richest corpos on Earth, but I’d expect nothing less from plutocratic fake-democracies.

    • FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      4 days ago

      While the settlement appears to be a victory for Apple users after months of mediation, it potentially lets Apple off the hook pretty cheaply. If the court had certified the class action and Apple users had won, Apple could’ve been fined more than $1.5 billion under the Wiretap Act alone, court filings showed.

      • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Seems like a great chance to challenge the whole “eula can be used to force meditation instead of court”. Was this a class action meditation? How does it claim valid representation for people who were affected but weren’t a part of the meditation?

        Should also challenge the whole corporate veil because there would be criminal charges if any individual did this and even though they were surrounded by a corporate structure, this was also done by individuals.

  • Th4tGuyII@fedia.io
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    4 days ago

    Given Apple made $93.74 billion in just 2024 alone, this fine is equivalent to fining the average person just 1/3 of a day’s wages for over a decade of illegal privacy invasion.

    That fine is laughably insignificant in the face of the crime committed against the people involved.

    The average person pays proportionally far more than that for much less significant crimes!

    • lost_faith@lemmy.ca
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      4 days ago

      Penalties need to take into account profit, ALL profit is the base of the fine, then add penalties on top. Until this happens… who am I kidding it’ll never happen

  • GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world
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    The difference between their trillion and 95 million fine is equivalent to the difference between $1000 and 95¢. This isn’t even a slap on the wrist.

  • casmael@lemm.ee
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    4 days ago

    “””””””””unintentionally”””””””””

  • Onno (VK6FLAB)@lemmy.radio
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    I noticed the lack of mention of iMac or people who don’t live in the USA, but I’m guessing that we’re not considered a user, just a source of income…

    Also, September 17, 2014, and December 31, 2024 covers almost a decade of recordings, $20 seems inconceivably low return of investment and I doubt it represents how much actual money was made in advertising revenue, AI training and whatever else it was used for.

    Finally, what about devices owned by an employer but exclusively used by one individual?

  • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org
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    4 days ago

    Well, I can’t wait to get my $20 check in the mail. That was so worth having my privacy invaded without my consent.

    Class-action justice has been meted out! And it’s going to cost Apple dearly - roughly a 0.1% of their monthly profits!

  • ghostpony@infosec.pub
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    4 days ago

    Pathetic. That’s 9 hours worth of revenue for them. I’m sure that’ll teach them.

    • Nougat@fedia.io
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      4 days ago

      Not saying the fine is fine, but revenue doesn’t matter here. Profit does.

      • BrikoX@lemmy.zip
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        4 days ago

        Of course it matters.

        Imagine if they make a big revenue but still operated in the negative does that mean they are immune from any repercussions because they made no profit? That is delusional. You always calculate fines against revenue.

        • Nougat@fedia.io
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          I didn’t say to use profit to calculate the fine.

          There is a comparison here, between the amount of the fine and revenue. I’m saying that a more appropriate comparison would be between the fine and profit.

          • BrikoX@lemmy.zip
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            It still doesn’t matter even from comparison point of view. In context of the comment, comparing it against revenue makes more sense than profit, since that’s what investors care about as that’s what grows stock value. Profit is what bonuses are based on when we are talking about these trillion-dollar corporations. So if we want to “teach” the investors, revenue is the target.

  • lemmydividebyzero@reddthat.com
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    9 bilion and they take it serious.

    Just meassure the penalty in percentage of yearly earnings and that won’t happen anymore…

  • CreatingMachines@fedia.io
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    “Oopsie poopsie, I sent that rash you sent to your doctor to our CEO, soooooory. Here’s a 20 as an apology, again, so sorry for doing that, won’t happen again, pinky promise!”